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Vote Choice and Vote Change in the Antebellum House: Evidence from the Gag Rule, 1836-1845
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Vote Choice and Vote Change in the Antebellum House:
Evidence from the Gag Rule, 1836-1845*
Scott R. Meinke
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
## email not listed ##
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/smeinke/
Prepared for delivery at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
August 28 - August 31, 2003. Copyright by the American Political Science Association.
Abstract:
From the 24
th
through the 28
th
Congresses, the House of Representatives operated under a
self-imposed “gag rule” that blocked receipt of petitions for the abolition of slavery or the slave trade. The decade-long series of recurring House votes on the gag rule represent not only a significant and underemphasized part of the antebellum debate over slavery but also an excellent context in which to test a number of propositions about member decision making. In this paper, I analyze members’ voting records on the gag rule. I show, first, that partisanship as well as constituency and electoral considerations are related to gag rule voting. I then show that some members reversed their gag rule positions over time, and I use event history analysis to demonstrate that they did so in systematic ways; I also discuss the contributions of these position reversals and member replacement to policy change. These dynamics of gag rule politics, I argue, illustrate important dynamics within the second party system. _________________
*Portions of this research were presented at the 2002 Midwest Political Science Association meetings. For valuable comments on earlier versions of this work, I thank Jan Box-Steffensmeier, Herb Weisberg, Larry Baum, and Kevin Scott. I thank Craig Goodman for providing electoral data used in the analysis.
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Vote Choice and Vote Change in the Antebellum House:
Evidence from the Gag Rule, 1836-1845*
Scott R. Meinke
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Prepared for delivery at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
August 28 - August 31, 2003. Copyright by the American Political Science Association.
Abstract:
From the 24
th
through the 28
th
Congresses, the House of Representatives operated under a
self-imposed “gag rule” that blocked receipt of petitions for the abolition of slavery or the slave
trade. The decade-long series of recurring House votes on the gag rule represent not only a
significant and underemphasized part of the antebellum debate over slavery but also an excellent
context in which to test a number of propositions about member decision making. In this paper,
I analyze members’ voting records on the gag rule. I show, first, that partisanship as well as
constituency and electoral considerations are related to gag rule voting. I then show that some
members reversed their gag rule positions over time, and I use event history analysis to
demonstrate that they did so in systematic ways; I also discuss the contributions of these position
reversals and member replacement to policy change. These dynamics of gag rule politics, I
argue, illustrate important dynamics within the second party system.
_________________
*Portions of this research were presented at the 2002 Midwest Political Science Association meetings. For valuable
comments on earlier versions of this work, I thank Jan Box-Steffensmeier, Herb Weisberg, Larry Baum, and Kevin
Scott. I thank Craig Goodman for providing electoral data used in the analysis.
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